Stable In You
by hypercamera3
Summary: Nothing in the world could ever force her to separate, and nothing terrifies them more than the thought that something might be able to. And if something ever forced them to defuse, they wouldn't be sure how to handle it. Written with the idea that Ruby was blind, from before we'd gotten confirmation from the Crew that she wasn't.


There was a silence that filled her room. The quiet filled her with a sense of focus. She could look down the rivers of time and possibility. There were entire pools of strength that she hadn't even tapped into yet, and she could find them in the silence. Surrounding her, bubbled gems glimmered and seemed to be hoping for life. She took a breath. She could feel a shimmering inside of her. She wanted to see further down the river. Perhaps find the ocean it connected to. Find a deeper power within herself. Achieve pure awareness. Full Actualization. Perfection in form. See further than she ever had.

Possibilities.

Times.

Events.

But, she saw something else.

The sound of the temple door retreating came behind her. She did not turn from her meditation. She assumed one of her friends had entered. Then, the sound of dripping water caught her attention. Heavy steps across the room grew closer. The door crashed behind her again. The dripping got louder. The footsteps got heavier. The raspy voice caught her attention.

"Did you really think you were going to be rid of me so easily?" Jasper declared. The bitterness seemed to rush through her voice. It spewed like venom. "I'm not going to be beaten so easily by a cheating disgrace of a _fusion_ like you."

"Jasper," Garnet acknowledged, "shouldn't you be at the bottom of the ocean. Eroding."

"Weak little Lapis couldn't hold me forever."

Garnet took another breath. She opened her three eyes. "How did you get in here?"

Garnet could practically hear the other gem's grin. "That's my secret now, isn't it? But Rose Quartz isn't much of a guardian as she used to be, huh?" There was a sound Garnet could only barely recognize. Cracking.

She was on her feet in a second, gauntlets at the ready. She turned on her heel and threw a wide punch, which Jasper blocked with her right forearm, fist clenched.

"What's the matter, _fusion_?" She closed her fingers around something and whatever she held exploded into a mist of white and red dust. Little shards clattered on the floor.

"What did you _do?!" _Garnet demanded an answer from the Homeworld gem.

"I did my job and _crushed_ a rebellion." She lifted herself off the ground and sent Garnet flying with a strong kick. The Crystal Gem slammed her fist into the floor and left a rut when she slowed down. Jasper's helmet appeared over her skull, the visor dropping a moment after. "Better late than never."

And Garnet rushed her. One strong attack. Then, another. Punch after punch. A jumping kick, a low sweep. But Jasper could keep pace. Blocking here when the punch came. Blocking there when Garnet took to the air. They exchanged blows, with equally successful accuracy rates.

Jasper was slow with one punch. Garnet leaped and landed atop the gem's forearm. A crouch. A smirk. A fist slammed through Jasper's visor. Jasper swung again, but Garnet had leapt again.

Feet touched the ground behind her. She moved to rotate left; Garnet raised her gauntlets in defense.

The rotation came right, faster than the Crystal Gem could register. An elbow shattered her shades and she found herself knocked to one knee.

She raised her head and another fist broke what remained of her shades. She moved again. A wide, blind punch. No where near the Homeworld gem. Jasper was to her right, and another fist cracked against her face. Jasper made it to her left now, and sent another fist crashing into her. She stumbled, desperate to hold balance on her knee.

Two fists across her back had her meeting the floor of the temple.

"Faster... than I remember..." Garnet observed. She took another breath. Her fists broke through the floor, and she jumped back to her feet.

Jasper charged her now. She raised her fists in defense and her gauntlets took the initial impact, but Jasper was moving her across the room. Garnet tried to escape the attack, but Jasper wrapped her arms around the gem before she could. The Homeworld gem slammed Garnet into the wall.

She stepped back and slammed her into the wall again. And again. And again. Each time she felt Jasper's shoulder ram against her harder. Garnet brought her gauntlets down onto Jasper's back, but the Homeworld gem refused to quit. Any attempt at separation was futile. She could feel her form corrupting as her gems assessed each hit.

At some point, Jasper let go of her. Garnet hit the floor like a bag of ice.

She turned towards her opponent as she approached from the side. A fist curled tightly through her hair and lifted her up slightly.

"Any last words, fusion?"

Garnet's thought were scrambled. She worked out the words. "Stronger... than I remember..."

She made the mistake of not closing her eyes when her face hit the floor the first time. She didn't make that mistake any of the time that followed. All she could see was blackness. She was feeling herself grow numb

"_Just." _A slam into the floor.

"_Die." _Another.

"_Already!" _And another.

Eventually, she felt herself fading.

* * *

Everything was still dark. But there was no more pain. The numbness was still there. But no more movement, no more slamming.

But she felt small. Weaker.

Incomplete.

She recognized the sound beside her. A flurry of skirts fell beside her. She scrambled towards the noise, still in darkness.

"Sapphire!" She announced. As she crawled, her foot was caught in the rut they had made before. She fell further and lost the sound of the skirts.

Heavy footsteps came from somewhere.

"Tiny and Puny," Jasper mocked.

Ruby jumped to her feet and punched towards the voice. She struck the enemy's leg, but to no avail. Jasper kicked the fighter back to the floor. The sound of skirts was there again. She stood, rushed toward it. Jasper caught her with a strike at full force. She felt like she was flying for a moment.

The temple wall stole her flight. She searched for the sound again. The sound of her enemy. The sound of her lover. Something besides the ringing in her head.

The heavy footsteps returned, far away. But, getting closer.

"Get away from her!" Sapphire demanded from somewhere.

Ruby rushed towards the voice. Stumbled over the craters in the floor. Jasper came from somewhere again, slamming Ruby with her helmet.

She felt as though she bounced off the wall and crashed back into the floor.

"Ruby!" She heard her friend shout. She looked towards the sound of running. She heard a struggle. Grunts and shouts.

Then, with a thud on the floor, she heard the flurry of skirts. Too weak to get up again, she reached a hand out towards the sound. She knew it was close.

Some group of fingers clutched with her own. "Sapphire?" Ruby asked.

"It's me. I'm right here," Sapphire assured.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"I can't move," Ruby explained. Footsteps, far away. Getting closer.

"Go back in your gem," Sapphire ordered.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Ruby, please..."

"Where's the enemy?"

"Ruby," Sapphire said.

"Where is she?!" Footsteps getting louder.

"Ruby, you're going to be okay."

"What?"

"Ruby, I swear, you're going to be okay," Sapphire declared frantically.

"Sapphire, what's going on?!" Louder steps. She tightened her grip on her lover's hand.

Sapphire returned the grip. She made sure that it would be nearly impossible to separate them. "You're going to be okay," she said again.

"Stop saying that!"

"I love you and you're going to be fine!"

"Why are you saying that?!"

There was a thud. A crack. A grip that simply seemed to fade into nothingness. The sound of a clattering along the stone floor.

Silence.

"...Sapphire?"

Still nothing.

"Sapphire, where are you?!"

No response.

"Answer me!"

Darkness.

Silence.

And, then, another crack.

A laugh.

The sound of a shattering gem.

"Sapph–Huh!" A foot pressed against her back.

"Pitiful. A waste of two gems. Turned into a disgusting fusion like that." Jasper stepped on her fallen opponent, summoning a groan from her. She rested her foot over Ruby's hand, above her gem. "I'm gonna enjoy this."

"Where's... Sapphire?"

She felt the pressure on her gem, felt the force and the pain. She screeched in pain, and then felt the cracking.

She shut her eyes, though it did nothing. She was as trapped in blinding darkness as she was before. She tried to think.

And, in those final moments, she forced herself to keep one thought strong in her mind.

"Sapphire!"

* * *

"Garnet!"

All three of her eyes shot open. She turned in a panic towards the door.

"Yo, Garnet, you okay?" Amethyst questioned, twirling her whip at the door.

"Yes, Amethyst... I'm fine."

"Alright. I thought I heard screaming or some junk."

"Just a... meditation exercise," she lied.

"S'long as you're cool." Amethyst yawned and made her way out with a goodnight.

The leader of the Crystal Gems took a long breath, a breath that meant nothing. She shut her eyes and lifted her palms up. Her eyes opened to the sight of the gems.

"Just a bad hallucination," she explained to herself.

"_Are you okay?"_ Garnet asked herself.

"**Fine as long as I'm here**." She heard herself respond.


End file.
